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"Oh,skyward drea!" I howled at her

"I already am," she assured me

She re it skyward It sparkled and flashed, and flew up out of the light of torches and swords, and vanished into the night A few seconds later, it exploded in a cloud of reen sparks

"There That place will do," she said, clapping her hands and bouncing up and down on her toes "Noe shall see a real dance"

Green lightning split the sky, erupting with such a burst of thunder that the ground shook Instead of fading, though, the thunder grew louder asflared out froht

Then a sheet of a dozen separate green bolts of lightning fell all at the saround of the ball court twenty yards away, blowing sround

It took my dazzled eyes a few seconds to recover from that, and when they did,on the ball court were twelve figures

Twelve people in shapeless grey robes Grey cloaks Grey hoods

And every single one of them held a wizard&039;s staff in one hand

The Grey Council

The Grey Council!

The nearest figure was considerably shorter than me and stout, but he stood with his feet planted as if he intended to round, then boo word as he thrust the tip of the iht

The second floor of the stadium-temple where they stoodsimply exploded A force hit the ancient structure like an enor forward at Mach 2 It s, the Lords of Outer Night, and several thousand tons of the teh the air with enough violent energy to send a shock wave rebounding from the point of iht a second of stunned silence to the field - and I was just as slack-jawed as anyone

Then I threw back lee The Grey Council had come

We were not alone

The echo ofthe rest of us back to fighting for our lives I blew a few more vampires away froy coht a tide of ruinous Red power upon my shield, and hurled a blast of flame back at a Red Court noble in an to open up on the newly arrived Grey Council, who responded in kind, and the air was filled with a savage crisscross of exchanged energies

The stocky figure in grey stu, Hoss?"

I felt rin, but I answered hiht a staff with me Other than thatcan&039;t corunted "Nice outfit"

"Thanks," I said "I liked your ride Goodas there&039;s some carpet to scuff your feet on," he said, and tossedthrough the implement at once It was a better-made staff than mine, but Ebenezar had been the one to teach me how they were made, and both staves I had used over the years had been carved fro-struck oak in the front yard of his little farm in the Ozarks I could make use of this staff almost as well as if it were my own

"What about you?" I asked him "Don&039;t you want it?"

He batted a precisely aimed thrown ax from the air with a flick of his hand and a word of power, and drawled, "I got another one"

Ebenezar McCoy extended his left hand and spoke another word, and darkness swirled from the shadows and condensed into a staff of dark, twisted wood, un whatsoever

The Blackstaff

"Fuego!" shouted someone on the walls - and for a second I was hit with a little sting of insult Soo" and it wasn&039;t uns started barking, and they ai sharply as they hitahit with serous - unless one of theed a head shot

Ebenezar turned toward the walls fro Hits thumped into his robes, but seemed to do little but stir the fabric and then fall at his feet The oldcontract, boys"

Then he swept the Blackstaff froht, murmured a word, and ripped the life from a hundred men

They justdied

There was absolutely nothing to le No convulsion ofwildly down at us - and the next, they simply -

Dropped

Dead

The old man turned to the other wall, and I sao or three of the brighter soldiers throw their guns down and run I don&039;t know if they h the air again, and the gunmen on that side of the field dropped dead where they stood

My godmother watched it happen, and bounced and clapped her hands sohted as a child at the circus

I stared for a second, shocked Ebenezar had just shattered the First Law of Magic: Thou shalt not kill He had used- nearly two hundred times I mean, yes, I had knohat his office allowed hi difference between appreciating a fact and seeing that terrible truth in motion

The Blackstaff itself pulsed and shiot the sudden sense that the thing was alive, that it knew its purpose and wanted nothing more than to be used, as often and as spectacularly as possible

I also saw veins of venoin to ooze their way over the oldto his wrist He griht hand for a ht!"

The farthest grey figure, tall and lean, lifted his staff I saw light gleahtning enfolded the length of wood as he thrust the round He took the staff back - but the twisting length of green lightning stayed He drove the staff down again about six feet away, and again lightning sheathed it Then he rerip on it, and with a sweep of his arht coluap

He was opening a Way

There was a flash of light, and the space between the bolts of lightning warped and went dark - then exploded with black figures bearing swords For the firstodd costu like a crow&039;s, co clothes that seeot it

They actually were beak-faced creatures, covered in soft black feathers and carrying swords, each and every one of theate by the score, by the hundreds, and began to bound forith unnaturally long leaps that see They looked deadly and beautiful, all grace, speed, and perfection of littered off of their blades and glassy black eyes

"The kenku owed ood time to call it in"

With sharp whistles and wails of fury, the strange creatures bounded up out of the ball court and began to engage the Red Court in numbers

It was too er than anything I&039;d ever seen Stone weapons clashed against steel Blood flew: the black of the vampires, the blue of the kenku, and, mostly, flashes of scarlet ruous beauty in it, and I thinkthat wasn&039;t threatening ie," I said I grabbed the old et to her"

He gri te at the pyramid "And about four hundred meters north of the teuarded the last time I looked There are hurunted and nodded "Get the girl We&039;ll take care of the Red Court and their Night Lords" The old ht with excite what they&039;ve been dishing out"

I gripped his hand, hard, then put my other one on the old man&039;s shoulder and said, "Thank you"

His eyes welled up for an instant, but he only snorted and squeezed back "Get your girl, Hoss"

The old man winked at me I blinked a few ti out - for Maggie, and for me

Chapter 47

"God toward the pyramid

Lea appeared at ht - her own deadly sorcery "Shall we pursue the quest now?"

"Yeah Stay close We&039;ll round up the team and move"

Molly was nearest I went to my apprentice and shouted in her ear, "Coot to ue nod, and finally lowered the little wands as the kenku&039;s charge drove into the Red Court and took the pressure from our flanks The tips of her wands, both of the li at her sides, and she looked even paler now than she had going in She turned to round, her eyes rolling back in her head

I stared at her in shock for a second, and then I was on ht to check her for injuries In the chaos, I hadn&039;t seen that one of her legs, at h, was a oons had hit her beneath the ar

Thoround next toas a tourniquet "I&039;ve got this!" he said, looking up at o!"

I stared at him for a second, uncertain Molly was ardedin check at the scale of the conflict around us "Harry," he said "I&039;ll guard her with my life I swear it"

I nodded, and then clenched a fist, looking around Thatvairl like bees to flowers Thoht "Mouse," I called, "stay with the rushed over to Molly and literally stood over her head, his eyes and ears everywhere, a guardian determined not to fail

Then I ran to Murphy and Sanya, who both bore small cuts and abrasions, and who looked like they were about to charge into the nearest portion of the fray Martin tagged along with me, apparently calm, and by all appearances unaware that he was in the middle of a battle Say what I would about Martin, his blandness, his boring dee were very real armor in this situation He siet, and he was untouched

I looked around them and picked up a sword that had been dropped by one of the warriors they had killed, a siht, razor-sharp on both edges, and suitedto the pyraroup of thirty or forty kenku went over us, witch shadows against the rising uar warriors who still stood between us and an exit froo!"

I suited action toEbenezar&039;s allies were cutting for us There was a surge of ic and a flash of motion ahead of us, as another vaht a s on my mentor&039;s staff - it was shorter, thicker, and heavier thanthe attack down my arm, across my shoulder, and out the tip ofbolt chewed a hole in the belly of the Red Court noble He staggered as I closed on him I spun the staff to the horizontal, and checked hiround

We went past the remains of the tes It was chaos out there Jaguar warriors and priest types were everywhere, andinto tea toward the ball court to reinforce the Red Court I realized that at soht, her halo a blaze of ht side, with Sanya on ht of the tords was a terror to the vampires and half-breeds alike, and they recoiled from that aura of power and fear - but that wasn&039;t the sa They sie circle about us, drawing it slowly tighter as wetoready to rush us fro that," Sanya said, panting, his cheerful voice going slightly annoyed "Never is it anything new"

They were right I could sense the change inin more closely behind us

I felton the fifth level of the pyraolden ht had been knocked all the way over to the pyramid by Ebenezar&039;s entrance And I could feel his will at work in the foes around us - not used to overcome an enemy with igression

"That guy," I said, nodding at hih"

Murphy scanned the pyramid until she spotted him Then her eyes tracked down to the base of the stairs and she nodded shortly "Right," she said

And she raised Fidelacchius, let out a screa out at her dojo, and plunged into the warriors of the Red Court like a swi a wave

Sanya blinked

Holy crap, I hadn&039;t meant she should do that

"Tiny," Sanya said, letting out a belly laugh as he began to move "But fierce!"

"You&039;re all insane!" I screaed forith them, while Martin backpedaled and tried to keep up with us while si in from behind

Murphy did what no h a h them as if they&039;d been no more than a cloud of sainst the Sword of Faith, neither e

Murphy hardly seemed to actually attack anyone She sis happened to whoever had atteently aside while she continued onward, her own blade seeh an S-shaped slash upon the opponent&039;s body on the way through, wreaking terrible da the, their bodies being sent tuht left wounds in each and every opponent, their edges black and sizzling

They&039;d couar warriors ood Murphy had been handling opponents ere bigger and stronger and faster than her, in situations of real danger, since she was a rookie cop The va as they were, sees and criht of the Sword seeth - not ed and feinted and tossed warriors into one another, using their own strength against them The three-on-one she faced aluar warriors, ar his two coht, only to find his club sliced into three pieces that wound up on the ground next to his own severed leg

Karrin Murphy led the charge, and Sanya and I tried to keep up She went through that sea of foes like a little speedboat, her enemies spun and tossed and turned and disoriented in her wake Sanya and I hacked our way through stunned foes, pushing and chopping with unsophisticated brutality - and that big Russian lunatic just kept laughing the whole time

We hit the stairs, and resistance thinned sharply Murphy surged ahead, and the Lord of Outer Night raised a bejeweled hand against her, his sheer will causing the air to ripple and thicken Sanya and I hit it like a brick wall and staggered to a halt, but it seemed to slide off of Murphy, as had every other attack to cohter Panicked, the enemy raised a hand and sent three shafts of sorcerous power howling at her, one right after another Murphy&039;s feet, sure and swift on the stairs, carried her into a version of a boxer&039;s bobbing dance, and each shaft went blazing uselessly past her

Sanya yelped and dropped, dodging the bolt that nearly clobbered him I blocked one on odmother&039;s armor protected my flesh, but I hit the stone stairs of the pyramid pretty hard

I jerked ht and speed straight past hile, upward, vertical slash

The goldwith the front half of its skull Silver fire burned at the revealed, twisted, lumpy lobes of the vampire&039;s brain, and as its blood flowed out and touched that fire, it went up in a sudden pyre of silver-white flaed to screaic blindly and in all directions for several ly smears on the stone

Only then did the barrier of its will vanish, and Sanya, Martin, and I hustled up the stairs toward the temple

Still, the enemy pursued us - there were so daht I was able to look back and see that the Red Court had begun to contain the kenku incursion The battle was still furiously under ithin the ball court, and though the feathered warriors were the match of any two or three vampires or half-breeds, the enerateful that soit out with the Grey Council instead of getting in our way

"Da up the steps toward the temple at their summit Shadows moved inside "Darasp mine, where I clutched my staff

Murphy shook my hand until I looked at her "Sanya and I will stay here," she said, panting "We&039;ll hold theie"

I looked down the slope of the pyra up, and they were tearing free of their fleshthe ave their wielders ihtmares, but it didn&039;tfor twenty minutes - and there is no aerobic exercise that compares with the physical de tired

Suicide

But I needed to get up there

"Dresden," Martin called "Come on!"

I hadn&039;t even realized he was shaking uess I was getting pretty tired, too

I narrowed nore the burning in s,sudden cool, clean wind I thought I heard soue I didn&039;t understand - but I knew my queen&039;s voice I beca around me as I continued, a little faster, the hu around the frost that had formed on ue, and I felt the ice flowing into an to churn like the pistons of an engine Suddenly one step per stride si up the Martin behind

I reached the top and a half-breed jaguar warrior flung himself toward me I snarled, batted his sword aside withkick in the center of his chest

His sternum cracked audibly, and he flew backward as if rah to shake dust from the roof overhead, and crumpled like a broken toy Which was exactly the kind of power the Winter Knight was supposed to have, and as I watched the poor idiot drop, I felt nothing but satisfaction

The square temple had four doorways, one on each side, and in the one to ht a vauar skin still draped over its shoulders It clutched an obsidian knife in its hand - the Red King&039;s dagger It was the va of war, huh?" I asked hih the wrong door at the wrong time"

Its eyes flicked to the floor to ie crouched there, directly between the altar and the door on round as if hoping to be overlooked

"Go on," I said, looking back at the vahtly White mist poured off the blade So did a fe-flakes "Go for it, tough guy Take one step toward that girl and see what happens"

The door oppositeand no fewer than four of his Lords stood there, goldback weird reflections frohts and fires in the darkness outside

His face twisted with rage, and his will and the wills of the Lords behind hiehaered, planted my mentor&039;s staff fir driven to the ground

"Now," the Red King said, his voice strangled with fury "Put that little bitch on the altar"

One of the Lords stepped forward and bent down to seize the child by her hair Maggie screa went to the altar and kicked the corpse of the dead woman from it "Mortal," he spat "Still so certain that his willA wisp A shadow Here and then gone Forgotten It is fated It is the way of the universe" He jerked the ritual knife frolared atbeneath his skin The Lord dragged the shackled, screaleamed

"This is your only role,you are truly ie and bared his teeth, all long fangs, slaver running out of his mouth and down over his chin "Die"